Five Head-Scratching Sitcom Whodunits That Aren’t ‘Who Shot Mr. Burns?’
Thirty years ago, Simpsons fans spent the summer asking themselves one solitary question: Who shot Mr. Burns?
The show’s Season Six cliffhanger finale left them waiting with bated breath to find out who attempted to murder the town’s antagonist millionaire. There was an array of Springfieldians who had both motive and opportunity. The answer — which wouldn’t be provided for months — was that little Maggie Simpson pulled the trigger. The surprise reveal was quite funny and, to date, one of the few times a sitcom pulled off a genuine mystery.
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Here are five other examples of when a comedy show executed a genuine whodunit…
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: ‘Who Got Dee Pregnant?’
The mystery of Dee’s pregnancy was so good that the show got two entirely satisfying, entirely separate mystery episodes out of it. In the first, Dee tells the Gang that one of them got her pregnant at a Halloween party when they were all drunk. Told Rashomon-style from differing perspectives, the Gang attempts to recall their hazy memories of the festivities. In the end, they conclude that Dennis impregnated his own sister, only for Dee to reveal that she lied just to mess with them, and the father isn’t one of them. The Gang then stops caring about who the father is, and the episode ends with the mystery unsolved.
Six episodes later, however, Dee goes into labor and none of the guys want to end up taking care of the kid, so they suddenly give a shit about the identity of the father again. Charlie, Mac and Frank round up all of Dee’s past boyfriends and grill them about the last time they had sex with her.
In the end, though, it’s revealed that Dee was the surrogate for Carmen — a transexual woman Mac had dated previously — and her husband, a couple of the few characters on the show who could make for decent parents.
The Golden Girls: ‘The Case of the Libertine Belle’
As a requirement for a job she’s interviewing for, Blanche is invited to a murder mystery party. She extends an invitation to Dorothy, Sophia and Rose, and Dorothy quickly solves the fake murder. From there, however, a real murder appears to take place when Blanche’s would-be employer ends up dead in her room after she gives him a spare key.
An investigation leads people to suspect Blanche, but Dorothy’s detective skills come to the rescue once more when she reveals that it was another partygoer who was up for the same job as Blanche. Just as Dorothy solves the case, though, the would-be employer enters the room, alive and well, revealing that the second murder was all a part of the game, too.
Bob’s Burgers: ‘Turkey in a Can’
In celebration of Thanksgiving, Bob prepares a turkey with a three-day brine. But the next morning he finds the turkey in the toilet and furiously interrogates his family without determining who’s at fault. He then buys a second turkey with the idea of doing a two-day brine, only for that to mysteriously end up in the toilet as well.
Next, Bob buys two turkeys, both prepared with a one-day brine. One is a decoy placed in his fridge like the first two; the other he throws in the restaurant fridge. The next morning, both are in the toilet.
An undeterred Bob buys one last turkey on Thanksgiving day and throws it in the oven before he passes out on the couch. He starts sleepwalking and grabs the turkey to carry it to the bathroom. As the rest of the family watches, Bob puts the turkey on the toilet, and Linda realizes that not only is he the culprit, but he’s flashing back to when he toilet-trained their oldest daughter.
3rd Rock from the Sun: ‘Dial M for Dick’
While the other episodes on the list focus on mysteries that had to be solved for the characters and audience alike, this one gives the answers to viewers at home. When the Solomon family is invited to a party, they have no idea that it’s a murder mystery party — nor have they ever heard of such a thing (they’re aliens disguised as humans after all). So, when the murder takes place, the Solomons think it’s real. What follows is a tour de force performance by John Lithgow as Dick Solomon, who tries to solve what he sees as a vicious murder, as the rest of the partygoers wonder why he’s making such a big deal. It’s a great episode of a criminally underrated show.
South Park: ‘Cartman’s Mom Is a Dirty Slut’
Season One of South Park ended with a mystery that haunted fans — even if the show’s creators didn’t give a shit about it. In “Cartman’s Mom Is a Dirty Slut,” Cartman finds out he was conceived at a drunken barn dance his mom attended years earlier, but that so many people had sex with her that it was impossible to pin down who his father was.
The episode ends with a DNA test and a big tease, as a cheesy narrator voice says, “Who is Eric Cartman’s father? Is it Chief Running Water? Or is it Chef? Is it Mephesto? Or that little monkey guy that follows him around? Or is it Mr. Garrison? Is it Jimbo? Or is Officer Barbrady? Or could it be Ned? Or Mr. Broflovski? Or is it the 1991 Denver Broncos? The answer is coming on an all-new South Park in just four weeks.”
Four weeks later, however, was April Fools’ Day. Matt Stone and Trey Parker thought it’d be funny to not pick up where they left off and instead run an entire episode of Terrance and Phillip. Fans hated it, and even when Cartman’s dad was revealed weeks later, fans still didn’t find the answer satisfying: Cartman’s mom was a hermaphrodite, and she was actually Cartman’s dad and that someone else was his mom.
That remained the answer until the show’s 200th episode, when it was revealed that Cartman’s dad was, in fact, one of the Denver Broncos, but not just any Denver Bronco. It was Jack Tenorman, the father of Cartman’s arch-rival Scott Tenorman. This was especially dark because Cartman killed Jack Tenorman and his wife in Season Five and made them into chili for Scott Tenorman to eat.
That said, it was both an excellent make-good and an excellent payoff.